Black Sales Journal

Terminations – No one wants to think about it, yet it happens.  It does not end your quest to support your family and to move forward so think about it as what it is… a part of life.  How you handle it will be the key to what happens in your next position.

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Terminations happen in all occupations.  Most of what is said here in this journal applies to more than the sales profession, but the situation of a job not working out transcends sales as an occupation.

Once a termination does happen, your future is not terminated, just the relationship with that employer.  You will be seeking gainful employment in a sales position again, and your level of comfort dealing with the termination of employment from your last employer will certainly be tested, and sometimes spotlighted.

The question is simple:  Should you hide a termination from a prospective Employer?  The Answer is simple: No!

The Truth Will Set You Free

If you have read Black Sales Journal, you will remember one of my favorite suggestions:“Always tell the truth!” The key in this situation is not to focus on it.

Terminations happen and there is nothing pleasing about them.  What you don’t want to do is to relive bitterness and the trauma of a termination while you are in an interview looking for a fresh start.  One simple reason to tell the truth is that it is easier to remember.  The other is that you need to start this new relationship off on the firm footing of the truth.  In the world of sales professionals, many have had terminations for legitimate reasons, even though they endeavored to make it work.  Terminations do happen.

This is the information age and that gives prospective employers an ability to “uncover” you previous work history cheaply and fairly easy.  Note, that finding your history does not mean that a prospective employer would be uncovering the facts and details of what happened such as what your reasons for leaving.  Any hiring manager knows that a sales job followed by a prolonged absence of several months may well denote that a job action took place.

If you have been let go from your previous job because of performance issues, you need to be prepared to discuss reasonable reasons why you parted company.

Your resume needs to match up with any job history investigation that an employer can conduct.  The prospective employer checks this information through a service, such as Equifax,  or other services, and certainly with any on-line information that you might post such as LinkedIn.

Consistency eliminates questions and doubts.

What Should You Say?

There are sales jobs (and any other jobs) that just do not work out.  Your objective is to be able to tell the story in a cogent fashion.  There should be no accusations or disparaging remarks, but a clear story of why selling widgets for ABC Company in Columbus, Ohio did not work and resulted in you leaving after fifteen months.

Cover the issue of what the problem was.  Whether that was pricing, marketing support, sales support, a problematic territory, or a product that was inferior.  Do it in a professional manner, and always cite what actions you took to improve your fate.  If you do not have a solid and believable story, it may appear that you just cannot sell.

If you are a sales professional selling widgets and in your last job you were terminated because you did not meet your quota/goals, you need to own up to the fact that you were terminated.  I give below an example:

“I was let go because of not meeting the quarterly sales targets in two consecutive quarter.”  You can then give clarification of the most important issues (an example)… “I had difficulty meeting the goals as we promised delivery dates that were 4 weeks to a month longer than our other competitors.”

Places You Should Never Go!

You never want to go into an interview saying that your previous employer (or any employer you have had) is prejudice or discriminatory, even if you believe it to be true.   This is a sure way not to get a second interview and a possible hire.

The “well” will be poisoned if you make statements that allude to disparate treatment, as a prospective employer will immediately put themselves in the position of the previous employers.  Remember, they do not know you!

Instead, compliment the best aspects of the previous employer as difficult as it may seem.  If it is true a compliment such as: “There is no organization that does training like ABC Corporation”, shows your respect for the company.

.Additionally, there should be no disparaging comments about your previous manager.  You are on fair ground if you cite the fact that you did not have much support, but disparaging comments are out of bounds.

Compensate For the Weak Areas

If you have been terminated for not reaching goals, you will do well to have some support from your former co-workers.  You should get letters of recommendation citing your accomplishments.

We have covered before in Black Sales Journal, that you need to fully be prepared when you go to the interview including customer testimonials and all of your sales numbers.  Don’t share proprietary information which would jeopardize your past employer’s customers or information, but do be prepared to support your effort and accomplishments.  A customer testimonial helps to illustrate your affinity for customers and the sales process but you still may have some work to do to show that you effectively prospect.  Cover all of the bases and give yourself a chance to win.

You should provide good focus on your strong points and accomplishments as well as tout your specialties.  You need to be prepared to talk about your weak points that caused you the termination.  They may not apply to the new job, and thus lose relevance, but something like door-to-door prospecting might still be a part of the job, and you need to be prepared to show how you are going to change things.

Above all, you need to walk or run the road to continuous improvement, and be prepared to enunciate this also.  Your ability to tune-up your sales career (Black Sales Journal 8/15/2011 – Tuning Up Your Sales Career) may have some relevance to a prospective employer, but it is for you.

Thanks for reading, and your comments are always welcome

Your key to getting an interview is your resume.  Many professionals make the common mistakes and don’t realize it.  They only know that they are not getting calls.  Read on for some serious suggestions that can really help.

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We have talked about the resume in other posts, but this one will help you reform this important tool.  You may need to consider some omissions and additions.  These items will change the attractiveness of your resume, and now is the time to do it.

Your resume is not a complete bio, and it is not a curriculum vitae, it is designed to create the level of interest that prompts someone to say, “I want to learn more about this candidate!”

The perfect resume may not exist, but having more than one resume (Black Sales Journal 11/21/2011 Is Your Resume Race Neutral?) is something that I strongly suggest.  A resume for the job of sales representative for an equipment manufacturer that will require extensive cold calling is much different that a job as an order taker who doesn’t have to cold call but requires the ability to handle volume and extraordinary organizational skills.

Having sales skills and an understanding of the process in the overall is much more universal than just knowing how to sell a category of products.  Your worth may increase some with specialization, but knowledge of sales skills and the process often trumps product knowledge.  The X factor will be relationships in the right position.  Remember this in your wording.

6 Items for Consideration

As you start this year’s job hunt, you will want to reform your resume to consider these important changes from the resumes that you may have been used to constructing:

Remove the objectives section – What in the heck does it really get you?  I hired for years, and realized that this section was often someone telling me what I wanted to hear so that they could get the interview.  It did not work. In many cases, the objective section could be used against you if you are not careful in how it is constructed.   This will also open up valuable room by shortening the total length, while not sacrificing any content.  It will also give room for other important items that enhance your marketability.

Remove short-term irrelevant jobs – If you have short term irrelevant jobs, including temporary employment, you will want to consider shortening the actual resume by excluding these positions, especially if the positions are for less than a few months.  Yes, you will have some employment gaps, yet you will be able to explain them fully in your job application, which you should have to fill out and sign, and during the interview.  If you would like, you can have an abridged version of the resume, and to represent accuracy, a full version.  Your search for the job will include the abridged version.  This is only important if you have several short term or temporary jobs.

List job accomplishments for each job – A great outplacement professional and reference named Dave G. gave me some solid advice a couple of years ago.  He indicated that a good resume needs at least 3 accomplishments shown for each important position.   An accomplishment is just that, something that was accomplished, and not a skill.  Appropriate examples would be:

• Achieved a 12% increase in growth in sales and total revenue for the 2011 year for my assigned territory
• Increased customer count 20% while increasing customer retention by 8% 2011 versus 2010
• Achieved rank of top sales executive in the Eastern Division and #3 ranking nationally.

Be ready to back them up with substantiation if necessary, but don’t be ashamed of indicating these notable accomplishments.  Be specific and as concise as possible.

Know and include the keywords for the positions that you want – This one is important and I will write on it more in the very near future.  Keywords are important from the standpoint of the screening process.  If you resume gets screened out, you will miss the opportunity to be interviewed.

Key(words) to Success!

I will never attempt to say that I am a keyword expert, yet I understand the concept.  You will as well.  In a search for eligible candidates in a high-volume search (one where many candidates have the similar qualifications) such as sales representative, employers use automation to make the search easier.  Software utilized to find the keywords in your resume will be used to segregate those that go to the top of the pile from the others.  You want yours to be in the top of the pile.

Key place to find these keywords would be the job description or job brief for the job that you are applying for.  Other hints would include your college placement office, a recruiter or headhunter, and industry magazines and reference books.

Sites to get more valuable information on keywords are as follows:

Job-Hunt.org http://www.job-hunt.org/resumekeywords.shtml

Quintesssential Careers.com http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_keywords.html

If you are involved in what you suspect as a high volume search you should know your keywords, and make sure that cover letter and resume have an adequate amount of them.

Skip the references – I will keep this one short.  Everyone knows that you can produce references.  When I would get a resume that indicated “References available upon request”, I would always wonder why it was there.  At some point I took it off of my resume and don’t think it was ever missed.  It is common, but not necessary.  If you need the room, use it.  Both you and the prospective employer know that you may be called upon to provide references.

Keep the resume as “race neutral” as possible – You have read this one in Black Sales Journal before ((Black Sales Journal 11/21/2011 Is Your Resume Race Neutral?).  Let you resume work for you by keeping it “race neutral”.  You don’t know that the prospective employer is fair, and you do not know what experiences that they have had in the past which my work against you.  Avoid tipping off your race during this phase unless it is obvious to you that they are looking for a candidate like you.  They will know soon enough when they call you in for your interview.  Mentions of your fraternity, sorority, or social groups can benefit you but also can militate against you.  If you do not know that it will benefit you, such as they desire a Black candidate, then avoid it.

Pay Attention to Detail

If your resume is the key to getting in the door, make sure it is solid, and correct.  Have it reviewed by more than one individual, and that the keywords are there.  It is difficult when you are chocking this full of information about your favorite topic (yourself!) for you to easily note all the things that need to be tightened up or corrected.

Your comments are welcomed.

Be Effective!